Select Tier 8 set bonuses updated in latest PTR build
by Alex Ziebart 
Mar 23rd 2009 at 9:30PM
As I mentioned when the Tier 8 set bonuses were first revealed, some of them will probably change before patch 3.1 hits live realms. Better ideas come up, bugs are fixed, things are rebalanced, all of that. It's proven true so far, because tonight's PTR build has changed a few of them, most notably the ones that had incorrect or missing values in the tooltips. Here are the set bonuses changes we've seen so far in this build:Druid
Paladin
- Protection 2Piece Bonus -- Increases the damage done by your Seals of Vengeance, Corruption, and Righteousness by 10%.
- Protection 4Piece Bonus -- Shield of Righteousness now increases your shield block value by 225 for that attack and for 3 sec afterward.
- Holy 4Piece Bonus -- Your Sacred Shield can now trigger its effect every 4 sec instead of every 6.
- Shadow 4Piece Bonus -- Your Mind Blast also grants you 240 haste rating for 4 sec.
- Healer 4Piece Bonus -- Casting Power Word: Shield also grants you 250 spell power for 5 sec.
- 2Piece Bonus -- Increases the damage done by your Unstable Affliction by 20% and your Immolate by 10%.
[via MMO-Champion]
Patch 3.1 brings us Ulduar, dual specs, significant changes to all the classes, and more! We've got you covered from top to bottom with our Guide to Patch 3.1.Filed under: Druid, Paladin, Priest, Warlock, Patches, Analysis / Opinion
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Vassal Mar 23rd 2009 9:36PM
I agree. Protection has some fantastic armor.
McRaider Mar 24th 2009 9:51AM
And when you combine that with the libram of obstruction...
mike Mar 23rd 2009 9:42PM
Why post a mage picture and get my hopes up?
Nennutir Mar 23rd 2009 10:25PM
I also was expecting a mage change... FAIL.
Yeng Mar 25th 2009 10:25AM
Are you kidding me? The mage bonus is already awesome, the only 'change' will be a nerf, so you should be hoping for no change to the mage bonus.
Wes Mar 23rd 2009 10:25PM
"Healer 4Piece Bonus -- Casting Power Word: Shield also grants you 250 spell power for 5 sec. "
Why not make it the 15 seconds that the power word: shield's weakend soul debuff lasts for? 5 seconds is kind of 'meh'. I'd rather prefer to keep my PoM bounces one additional time than grabbing all 4 peices for a 5 second buff. 5 seconds? Man that's weak. 2 light heals(1.78 cast time /w 200ish haste I have) or 1 greater heal(3.68 sec). ...Woot?
The only time I can see I might want this buff would be to cast an extra powerful PoM onto an mt and hopefully the PoM would stay with the +250 sp on its second, third, fourth, fifth bounce?
I hope so... or else its really pointless to have this buff.
Wyred Mar 24th 2009 9:00AM
Your cast times are way off, a mistake I'm assuming. Flash heal is a base 1.5 second cast, Greater heal is 2.5 seconds (talented) I also think your shields should be absorbing more than 2.5k even as holy. I'd agree this isn't a great set bonus for holy, but for disc, this is pretty nice. Someone takes burst dmg, they now PW:S, penance, then FH/GH, all with extra healing from the spellpower boost. The 5 sec duration is low, but that's what borrowed time is for.
I also find some of your calculations of what kind of dmg is getting handed out in raids to be off, eg. only getting hit for a small amounts when the OT isn't on top of adds. This isn't vanilla, raid dmg is everywhere, PW:S is useful.
Kaphik Mar 23rd 2009 10:00PM
Completely unimpressed by the priest bonus. As a raiding Discipline priest, that spellpower increase isn't going to come into play very often, except on the very hard hitting bosses. Holy priests don't use their PW:Shield nearly as often as Disc, and a lot aren't going to justify spending ~800 mana just for a 250 spellpower increase, with the regen nerf.
As far as the Shadow bonus, it's also a waste in my opinion. It would be more useful procc'ing off of something like SW:Death, to speed up the cast of a Mind Blast. That haste is kind of wasted on a Mind Flay, which is what follows a MB almost every time in a spriest rotation.
Linkmaster Mar 23rd 2009 10:10PM
Spriests aren't using SWD and MF is the spell that deals the majority of our damage so im pretty pleased with the bonus.
turkeyspit Mar 23rd 2009 10:18PM
Um..you mean Holy Priests aren't casting PW:S on themselves whenever possible?
Do your Holy Priests perhaps die alot?
Whether on themselves or a Tank, Holy Priests have just as much an opportunity to cast PW:S as Disc Priests...the bubble just isn't as nice.
Wes Mar 23rd 2009 10:37PM
@turn
No, holy priests shouldn't die that often and PW:S shouldn't help that often. When raiding, the majority of the damage should always be aimed at the main tank and off tanks.
PW:S won't help worth much either. At the moment, wearing mostly 25-man naxx gear and valorous in every slot except helm(sigh), I have around 19.5k health. If something hits me and hits me for as much as 22k such as PW:S actually saves me, I'd be impresssed since most trash mobs in 25-man naxx deal between 4k to 7k dmg to me, 9-11k crit.
The boss mobs when they hit a priest such as raveious in the odd time that mc drops from both preists despite having hit cap via hit-gear for that fight and rajuveious? spelling? goes mad, he hits for around 30k and crits for around 45k. Power world shield won't make a difference whether I survive or not. Casting it more or less often in this situation unfortuantely won't save me.
Realistically, its better mana wise for the priest to take the 1-2 hits from the trash mobs till the ot/mt pulls him off you in vent as you've notified him and just do a self-cast lighter heal which if it crits does 8k healing for 500ish mana rather than 2.5k shield for 800 mana.
Personally, I'd prefer something like the Paladin's set bonus. Increased frequency of a 6 second buff giving +50% chance to critical on healing spell? I'd love to have a buff that gave me +50% chance to critical with light heals. Especially considering talented right, you could easily get 1-3 free instance casts within that period and possibly a free light/greater heal as long as it is casted within 8 seconds.
Ceann Mar 24th 2009 2:38PM
Why do you think spellpower isn't going to come into play for you as a discipline priest? It seems far more useful to disc priests to me, they'll be casting shields anyway and they don't have all the spellpower boosting talents that holy priests have (so it's less likely just to cause even more overhealing).
Sanguinefrozenboy Mar 23rd 2009 11:07PM
I use SW:D to proc spirit tap if it's not up.
Kaphik Mar 24th 2009 12:28AM
It's the five second duration after casting the shield. Disc priests won't be taking full benefit from it, because the shield combined with the tank's avoidance means that they usually aren't taking big hits in the short time after a shield is cast on them.
As far as a shadow priest not using SW:Death, if you're not using that as a regular part of your rotation, you're losing a lot of DPS there. Bad choice.
Alex Ziebart Mar 24th 2009 12:32AM
Actually, I believe that in Wrath of the Lich King, using SW:D isn't a DPS gain. In BC it was, but not Wrath. But I'm admittedly not 100% sure on that.
Kaphik Mar 24th 2009 12:40AM
I see a noticable difference when I don't use SW:Death in my rotation compared to when I don't. Also comparing it to other spriests in my raid group who don't use it every time it is up, my DPS is higher.
Gerik Mar 24th 2009 10:10AM
SW:D is a DPS loss. Anecdotal evidence of "I use it and I do more DPS than that other guy" doesn't prove anything. Go read shadowpriest.com or elitist jerks before continuing to spread ignorant misinformation.
The 4-piece bonus is great for Discipline. In that small window of time, a discipline priest can fit in a couple big heals easily with Borrowed Time for some great burst HPS. Also, it's realistic to think that Discipline could keep the buff going throughout a fight.
For holy, it's not useless, but no (good) holy priest is going to be continually throwing around their baby, mana inefficient shields to try to keep the buff rolling.
Saeverud Mar 23rd 2009 10:29PM
Compared to the DK and Warrior 4 piece bonus, the Prot bonus is VERY lackluster. Paladins are basically getting two threat bonuses with a small mitigation effect which makes it more trash tanking than anything. While warriors are getting a flat 20% deduction to spell damage while their shield block is up.
Nick S Mar 23rd 2009 10:32PM
I wondered if someone at Blizz would notice that the 2-piece Prot bonus was better for Ret than Prot in its previous state.
jam Mar 23rd 2009 10:34PM
Where's the much needed change for Feral T8? Bears really got shafted there (again).